Photography as a Visual Literacy Tool (original) (raw)
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Literacy and the visual: Broadening our vision
The inclusion of visual images in current educational literacy discussions tends to contextualise them within more semiotic, socio-critical and textually focussed theoretical traditions. These particular traditions privilege and emphasise the structures and "language-like" aspects of visual images, and include the broader social and cultural structural frames, such as gender and class, as well as the specific codes and "grammars" of individual images. While there are strong benefits in employing these approaches, the nature of visual images themselves may require a broader, interdisciplinary approach. This paper will include discussion of the field of visual culture in general, the unique nature of images, the role of philosophy in regard to image, the inclusion of the individual's hermeneutic role in meaning-making, and the attendant educational implications when applying such work to contemporary educational literacy practice.
Reflections on Visual Literacy as learning spaces for theories and practices
The reflections presented in this paper are based on the Master's research "Investigations on Reading through Cinema in the University: Critical Literacy in English Teaching" 1 .Our initial interest was the interpretation of images by teachers and students in Brazilian university contexts. We realized that practices regarding images were still attached to what we called traditional structuralist paradigms 2 . Often, the teachers' discourses revealed an expertise regarding critical pedagogy as theorized by . They would claim "to be critical" and "to be developing critical work". However, by analyzing their lessons, we realized most of their practice focused on criticalreproductivism 3 as in Saviani (Saviani 1990). We believe that it is still a challenge for us teachers to theorize and practice critical approaches to teaching through English in university contexts. Reflections on an education within "other" concepts such as critical literacies (visual literacy in the case of this study) and critical pedagogy would provide, in our view, possibilities of other paradigms for educational processes within the claims of social change.
2013
Considering the multitude of languages and the fact that beginning literacy is a key literacy practice in children's education, we aim at identifying how images are approached in a textbook used in the first grade of elementary school and accredited by Brazil's National Textbook Program (PNLD, 2010). We also seek to discuss the extent to which the analyzed sample provides a comprehensive and critical reading of visual texts. The analysis was done based on interpretive epistemology, the sociocultural approach to literacy, and visual language syntax, which can contribute positively to the analysis of visual discourse. We concluded that the image in the sample is presented from sociocultural approaches, that the reading activities foster visual literacy, and that teachers' support plays a significant role in adopting approaches to reading and in conducting reading activities per se.
On Visual Literacy and Illiteracy
This paper was originally printed as the Introduction to the conference proceedings of “From Power 2 Empowerment: Critical Literacy in Visual Culture” in June of 2009. This international conference attracted speakers and participants from a broad array of academic disciplines. This gathering provided a dynamic, heterogeneous forum that fostered the critical examination of what it now means to be literate in environments that are continuously being re-shaped by the enormous array of printed, digitized and transmitted images and visual communications systems that contextualize our perceptions of ourselves and our world. Understanding the relationship of literacy to power is central to this challenge. Meeting it will require the creation, thorough examination an amalgamation of new types of knowledge, which will be essential to answering the following question: How does achieving, demonstrating and maintaining visual literacy subject us to power wielded by those who create, foster, or participate in the exchange of visual culture, media and communication?
Media Literacy through photography and participation. A conceptual approach.
We are living in social massification processes that oppress our identity and specificity as a human group; however, there are tools increasingly present among researchers, educators and other professionals who help to develop interpretations and create knowledge by developing a participatory communication perspective. This article discusses how communication and learning through dialogue and creative practice can be fostered with social interaction and dialogic processes generated through participatory photography workshops, in order to contribute to media literacy. Similar to other creative experiences of this kind, this is not only a space to share products, jobs, tips and techniques, but also one for social interaction and communication. Educators in the field of media literacy can find, unprecedented challenges and opportunities in these initiatives to take advantage of the body of knowledge of adolescents and promote learning.
Literacy Through Photography: Multimodal and Visual Literacy in a Third Grade Classroom
This article reports findings from a diverse third grade classroom that integrates a literacy through photography (LTP) curriculum as a central component of writing instruction in an urban public school. A case study approach was used in order to provide an in-depth, multi-dimensional consideration of phenomena by drawing on multiple data sources to examine and describe the LTP program in this third grade classroom. Data were gathered, on average twice a week, throughout a full school year. The findings of this study demonstrate how utilizing different forms of communication, such as photography, alongside traditional school literacies, such as writer's workshop, expands the options that children have of processing and expressing their understanding.
Reception of Press Photography in the Context of the Theory of Visual Literacy
Studia Medioznawcze, 2019
The article presents the results of a study based on the theory of visual literacy, in which respondents were presented with two journalistic photographs. Scientifi c objective: Investigation the possibility of receiving the journalistic content contained in the press photo, the ability to read the message of the photograph, the impact of the image on the emotions of the recipient and the need to use the word to understand the photographic message. Research methods: Critical methodology of research on visuality, quantitative research using the CAWI technique (Computer Assisted Web Interviews) on a nationwide sample of N = 2121 people, representative of Poles aged 18 and more due to gender, age and size of the place of residence. Results and conclusion: The recipients' diffi culties in reading the content of the photographic message and the low impressionistic value of the image have been proved. Cognitive value: The results obtained confi rm the need to use the word in the visual message.
Visual Literacy: the interpretation of images in English Classes
My goals in this article are to discuss the area of visual literacy and summarize the talk presented at the XVI Convention of English Teachers realized by APLIEMT -The Association of English Teachers of Mato Grosso, in 2013. In the first part of the article, I investigate three key concepts that influence the education of foreign/additional secondary languages: globalization, the roles of English and new technologies. In the second part, I discuss the area of visual literacy. Finally, I refer to some activities as examples of visual literacy.
This book is an edited volume, with contributions by Barbara Stafford, W.J.T. Mitchell, Jon Simons, Jonathan Crary, and others. It was the product of a combined conference and exhibition of the same name, which has generated another book, "Visual Practices Across the University" (which is uploaded, in its entirety, on this site) and "Visual Cultures" (not yet published). "Visual Literacy" is intended to survey the meanings of the expression, and related notions such as visual competence. Some contributors are interested in the theory of literacy when it pertains to the visual; others in its rhetoric; and others in its implementation at college and secondary school level. The book is intended to serve as a resource for conversations about what comprises minimal or desirable visual ability, competence, or literacy in a university or secondary-school setting. This text is the introduction, the only part of the book I wrote--and so the only part I will upload here.
International Journal of Multicultural Education, 2013
This article reports on the findings of a photography and literacy project the authors conducted with 117 diverse city students. Relying on a critical pedagogy framework, the foundations for this study include research on cultural relevance, literacy, and visual sociology. The authors used Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) and photo elicitation methods to allow young adults to document their impressions of the purposes of, supports for, and impediments to school. Through a multi-stage process of analyzing these pictures and writings, the authors discovered insights about what youth believe are literacy pedagogies that are relevant to their cultures and help them to achieve in school.<p> </p> <!--EndFragment-->